Use of drone technology continuing to expand in industry

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are being used more and more by the oil and gas industry for its monitoring and inspection operations. Some of the industry's largest refineries and sites have added them to their repertoires.

Drone, Refinery

Still photo taken by a drone during a flare tip inspection at Shell Deer Park.

Shell Deer Park is in the process of developing a drone technology program, which will be the first of its type within Shell. Shell Deer Park uses Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-certified drone pilots to operate drones to perform various tasks such as inspections at elevated heights (flare tips, columns, pipe racks, tank roofs, electrical systems, etc.), project planning, emergency response and security.

According to Shell Deer Park, the safety of its employees is the most important benefit of using drones. The site will have the ability to use the drone technology to reduce and -- in some cases -- eliminate the risk of having its employees working at heights. Additionally, Shell Deer Park believes this may lead to greater efficiencies in how it executes this work.

As drone technology continues to improve its capabilities to utilize different payloads, the use of drone technology will continue to expand in the petrochemical industrial sector and many other industry sectors. Expanding visual surveillance capabilities while lowering the risk to personnel has many unforeseen applications.

ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery uses UAVs with remote visual HD cameras to assist with long-term inspection and maintenance plans. They enable the refinery to conduct more detailed inspections of certain equipment before maintenance work. In this way, ExxonMobil Baton Rouge is able to better plan for maintenance before taking equipment out of service. This helps improve reliability in its operations. Use of these UAVs is subject to site security procedures and applicable rules and regulations.

"As the drone technology moves forward, you'll see more companies use them," said Greg Bowser, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association and Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance. "It's just a matter of time."

When drones are operated on-site, FAA requires the company to have a two-man operating team, and the drone must be operated within line of sight. According to Clint Palermo, vice president of U.S. upstream and midstream business development for Total Safety, UAV and drone operating professionals are working very diligently and methodically to put together a safe and effective beyond-line-of- sight (BLS) protocol.

"Once that BLS rule is put into place, it should open up a whole host of new opportunities and creative solutions," Palermo said. "You could start seeing the delivery of products in the industry through drones, pre-set flight paths, and autonomous flights. The possibilities could be endless with a BLS procedure."